Content Management Systems

Content Management Systems (CMS) have transformed web site production. CMS technology let’s a firm like nonprofitCMS develop a clean, crisp, very functional web site and hand it off to a client who has very limited technical skills to make updates on their own.

CMS technology continues to advance at an accelerating pace. In addition to having a great looking graphical web design, our CMS projects solve a lot of procedural challenges for our clients. Content is automatically syndicated to Twitter, Facebook and Google. Incoming leads are routed to appropriate sales agents and also automatically tracked in a database. Products can be sold and tracked through an integrated e-commerce system.

The examples above are just the tip of the iceberg. With a CMS presenting a great web site to the outside world is just the beginning. Let us help you choose the right platform for your organization’s needs.

No matter which CMS we set you up on, our process remains constant. We work with you to get you exactly what you need and then train you how to do maintenance and up keep so you can be as self sufficient as you’d like to be.

WordPress CMS – This is single handily the most popular content management system on the market. It is used by millions of small businesses and non-profits. It is also a corner stone technology in prominent household names like The New York Times, Harvard University and Best Buy.

Pros: Extremely easy to use when your web site has just one or two layouts (say home page + inner page)

Cons: Beyond managing content, additional functionality like member management or e-commerce can be tricky for non-technical users.

Drupal CMS – This is the most powerful open source CMS on the market. Drupal can be configured to the specific needs of your organization. For example say you want to have pages that talk about Careers, Employees, Products, and Services each in a unique manner. Drupal allows you to configure special page templates for each of these, to make adding or editing information a breeze. Drupal also allows for complex platform integrations. For example let’s say you want to share a workspace with your customer with confidential files — Drupal can let you do that. Drupal too is used by countless businesses large and small. The White House’s website, The Economist’s and Warner Bros’ are all examples of large organizations who rely on Drupal.

Pros: Very versatile and robust. Can do just about anything you imagine.Cons: Not as user friendly as WordPress. 1-2 hour learning curve instead of 10-20 minutes.

Sitefinity CMS: Sitefinity is the holy grail of CMS technology. This platform combines the ease of use of WordPress while giving the full power of Drupal. While WordPress and Drupal provide What You See is What You Get (WYSIWYG) content editors, Sitefinity is the only one that truly supports dragging and dropping. You can literally look at a web site page and drag and drop an image in to have it appear. Like our other recommended platforms, Sitefinity is used by countless business small and large. Coca Cola and Ikea are some examples of prominent corporations using Sitefinity for their web site management.

Pros: Amazingly easy to use. Truly in a league of it’s own when it comes to functionality.Cons: The ease of use comes at an increased development cost.

For all new projects we recommend using one of the three platforms mentioned above. We have significant experience working with Joomla, Umbraco and DotNetNuke as well which serve as ‘in between’ choices from core recommendations.

In order to provide excellent DC cms services we are a firm committed to listening, and building online tools that are simple to use. That begins with a meeting to lay out a step by step approach to create a proposal that addresses your needs. Call us now, or if your organization is located in DC we can arrange for an in person meeting.